For a long time, Direct Engagement has been seen as a risky solution to the temporary staffing challenge. These risks have mainly focused around employee tax complications, non-compliant employment schemes and confusion around compliance for the worker.
Healthcare organisations needn’t be wary of introducing a Direct Engagement model though. Implemented correctly, the model can create efficiencies for temporary staffing teams by decreasing agency booking admin and drastically reduce agency spend. Investing in a digital solution to support Direct Engagement can actually help to ensure HMRC compliance, providing assurance that your organisation and staff are compliant at every stage of the process.
We’ve collated a list of the top 9 things you can eliminate by using a digital solution (such as Allocate StaffDirect) to support a Direct Engagement model:
1. Unnecessary spend on agency fees
Whilst you do still pay the agency finders fee, using Allocate StaffDirect provides you the tools to easily engage your staff and pay them directly, saving 20% VAT on applicable salaries and associated agency costs.
2. Direct invoicing from agencies
The Allocate StaffDirect system removes the need for you to process agency invoices, with all payments being made directly from your organisation. The checking and input of invoices is also eliminated with a single file upload in the system and paying staff directly ensures consistency and timely payments.
3. Manual email booking cascade
You can set auto-booking cascade according to your selected agency tiers, reducing manual admin required and providing you complete flexibility on timings across all tiers. This provides agencies visibility of unfilled vacancies through automatic notifications, eliminates the need for direct emails and allows agency worker negotiations to be made via the system.
4. Non-compliant candidates
Using the Allocate StaffDirect system ensures that only compliant candidates can be suggested for duties, meaning only those with the most appropriate skills are considered. This reduces the time needed to find suitable candidates and speeds up and increases fill rates.
5. Worries around adherence to IR35 regulations
The system provides standardised processes for teams to follow, supporting you to ensure that all IR35 regulations are adhered to.
6. Risk associated with rostering and governance rules
Integration with your eRostering and staff bank systems creates a complete end-to-end workflow, ensuring every agency booking adheres to rostering and temporary staffing policies. This also ensures compliance with legislative and governance rules, supporting safety, Levels of Attainment and best practice for rostering and temporary staffing.
7. Double entry of data and lengthy booking administration
Integration between Allocate StaffDirect and your eRostering and staff bank systems reduces admin time by eliminating data entry in multiple systems. All details of the worker and booking are automatically pulled through, with an automatic feed flowing both ways, ensuring all data is real-time and accurate.
8. Concerns around visibility of data and budgets
Keeping track of workforce data and budgets across multiple systems can be a challenge. Integration between Allocate StaffDirect and eRostering/staff bank systems creates an end-to-end solution, providing full visibility of all agency data across all staffing groups, including total spend, making it easier to pinpoint areas for improvement.
9. Admin around onboarding new workers with AllocatePay
Utilising the AllocatePay system allows you to pay workers directly, eliminating the additional admin of onboarding workers on ESR or other third-party payroll solutions. All completed payroll documents and Direct Engagement contracts are checked prior to creating the payroll number, further reducing admin time.
A boost from AllocateStaffDirect
In addition to the things that Allocate StaffDirect system eliminates, the system also boosts direct engagement compliance, by ensuring staff are paid accurately and on time, cutting out the admin associated with agency bookings. The team at RLDatix actively work with you to engage staff in the model, sharing proven methods for success and best practice. Supporting Barts Health in this way boosted their compliance rate to 99.8%.
”“HMRC came to visit the trust for a review of our process in 2019. We took the team through all the processes, the Allocate StaffDirect system, data and insights, including everything around IR35. HMRC stated that it was ‘well assured that Barts Health NHS Trust was compliant’. HMRC also requested a copy of our processes to share as best practice, as it found them to be incredibly robust.”
John Simon- Head of Temporary Staffing, Barts Health
NHS Trusts have saved £200 million in agency staffing costs with Allocate StaffDirect
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